India: Man Sentenced To Death For Rape & Murder Of 6 Year Old Girl

Fact checked

A pedophile in India has been sentenced to death after being convicted of raping and murdering a six-year-old girl.

35 year old Anil Balagar was convicted of murdering the child after raping her at his home in Girinagar.

His sentence comes days after India’s cabinet passed an order making the rape of girls under the age of 12 punishable by death.

RT reports:The man was given 10 years of rigorous imprisonment for raping the girl, and the death penalty for killing her. He was also fined 10,000 rupees (US$150).

The victim went missing while playing outside her grandfather’s house, which is across the street from Balagar’s home, on April 20. “Three days later, foul smell emanating from Balagar’s house caught the attention of neighbors. On breaking it open, police found the girl’s body,” public prosecutor Channa Venkataramanappa said. An investigation showed that the girl was raped before being smothered in a pillow.

The Saturday ruling must now be confirmed by the high court. As the prosecution waits for the confirmation, Balagar – a father of two daughters – has time to appeal the ruling. It comes just days after India’s cabinet passed an executive order making the rape of a girl under the age of 12 punishable by death. However, Venkataramanappa stressed that the Saturday ruling has no connection with that order.

The change in law will become permanent if it is approved by India’s parliament, which is currently in recess. It will go into effect once it is signed by the president. However, it will lapse after six months if parliament doesn’t ratify it. The executive order followed nationwide demonstrations over recent cases of child sexual abuse. In one case, an eight-year-old Muslim girl was kidnapped and gang-raped for days before being killed. Eight men, including four policemen, have been charged.

India has seen a large spike in the number of recorded rapes in the country, with 40,000 incidents reported in 2016 – a 60-percent increase form 2012. Around 40 percent of India’s rape victims are children, according to Reuters.

 

2 Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.




This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.